All right, we'll turn to Psalm
37. I know you're just in 73, but turn to 37. Psalm 37. We need to be wounded. The Lord must come to us and
break our hearts. And we need to hear those words
that we can die I don't need dying grace just yet, but that
day will come. It's put in my charge to prepare
you to die. That's part of this work. You're going to meet a holy God. Somebody's going to believe what
I have to say, and you're going to go into eternity facing a
holy God over what I tell you. That's kind of heavy. I'm not
sufficient for these things, are you? God must do that. That's a heavy thing. But we
need words to die by. The Lord gave us those words
to die by. That's what we looked at Wednesday night, right? That
meal started. We had to have that Wednesday. We had to have
the one we just had last hour. If somebody can listen to this
one message, you need to listen to a whole bunch of messages
to somebody before you can get a handle on them. I'm preaching
to you. Somebody else can listen on Sermon
Audio or whatever. That's fine. I hope the Lord blesses it. I'm
not called to preach to Sermon Audio. I'm called to preach to
you, right? Let's teach you something. We
looked Wednesday night, let not your heart be troubled. You believe
in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many
mansions. We ain't worried about sticks and stones, ain't that
right? You agree? If it were not so, I told you,
I go to prepare a place for you. What's that place? You remember?
It's a place of acceptance with a holy God we offended. That's
an important place. That's important. That's real
important. Life and death important. Eternally important, isn't it?
He said, if I go to prepare a place for you, I'll come again and
I'll receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may
be also. That unity is going to happen.
Either he's going to come to me or I'm going to go to him.
It's happening. He said so. Lord, you said so. I believe
you. He told Thomas, he said, I don't
know the ways, I'm the way, the truth, the life, and no man cometh
to the Father by me. Everything we lost in that garden,
he's all in all. Christ is everything. I can go
into my deathbed looking to him. I'm ready to die, I have words
to die by. You get that? I have words to
die by. He's come to us, we're still
here. He's come to us and some of us, one or two, two or three
maybe, I hope. I hope there's two or three gathered
here today. He's come to us and he's touched us and he's popped
our hip out of socket and you limp. Do you limp? Spiritually,
are we limping? I limp, do you? I wanna help
you with your limp. Old brother Barnard, I wanna
help you if you let me. I wanna help you if you let me.
You and I need words to live by. We have words to die by.
I can go into eternity right now. I believe him, but I'm still
here. I need words to live by. I need
words to live by. This is for those who already
know they have a place. Christ has went to go prepare
you. That's who I'm talking to. I ain't talking to everybody. Kevin,
you ought not do that. We canceled a service. Oh, Kevin, what if
a visitor was coming? Well, I preached like 200 times
a year. You have plenty of chances. If the Lord wanted you here,
he'd have brought you here. I'm going on vacation in June. You
go on vacation. I'm going too. I'm speaking to those who have
a place. I'm speaking to you that have a limp. Well, I've
just never been affected like that. Well, I ain't talking to
you. Listen, the Lord may work in you. I don't know, but I'm
talking to those the Lord's dealt with. You that have a hope, an
expected end, you have words to die by, and the Lord's come
to you, worked in your heart. That's who I'm speaking to. I
ain't speaking to nobody else. Paul said that. He said, for
me to live is Christ. Did he say that? What do you
mean by that? I mean, it dies game. This world
will be able, but for me to be in this world, that's Christ
living in me. You reckon that's important? I think it is. I think it is.
Lord gave us these words in this life. We have a race to run.
We have an obstacle course. We got to navigate. We have a
boxing match. You're going to have to fight. We have a wrestling match, don't
we? We have that in this world. Those, what brother Bob read,
Asaph wrote that in Psalm 73, and you take him numbers and
just flip them. You got 37, 73, 37. You're dyslexic,
you're right either way. The subject of those Psalms,
of that Psalm and this Psalm is the same. The subject's the
same. Both deal with the same thing.
It's hard to see the wicked prosper. Oh man, it's hard. Every time
I drive down that hill, I see them RVs just heading as hard
as they can to the desert. You think I don't like riding
four wheelers and dirt bikes? You think I don't like fishing? I
don't wanna go on a cruise. I don't wanna go to concerts
or go to the beach and just put my feet up and rest. I see the
wicked prospering. They're doing good. Eyes bug
out with fatness. All their kids are getting along
good. They're not struggling over sin. Then people follow
him. He's greater than I bumper stickers
growing all over this county. You think them people go home
and just wet their pillow at night? I think I'm a sinner and God's
got to be merciful to me. I get jealous. That's so? People say, I've never done that.
Well, then this Psalm ain't for you. Asaph wrote that, same as David,
same as me. He said, it's good for me. This is good. It's good
for me to draw near to God. I put my trust in the Lord God.
I put my trust in him that I may declare all thy works. I trusted
God. No, I put my trust in him so
I can declare he's the one that's faithful. These words are good
to the believer, but you know, the opposite, all these words
I'm going to give you to live by the opposite is true to the unbeliever.
So he begins with saying, fret not, uh, if Lord ain't touched
your thigh, you better start fretting. You got problems. You got, you think you've got
problems. Now you got a lot more problems than that, but pray God shakes
you up, touches you, wakes you up, breaks you out of your slumber
and now you will sleep and get you shook up. Good. I got seven
verbs for you. Seven phrases. I'm going to talk
to me today, and you can just listen in. This is impossible
with me. These seven verbs, I can't do
them, but I desire to do them. I mean it. That's what I want.
I want this, Paul. Seven impossible desires. That's
the title. Seven impossible desires. Fret not. Trust in the Lord. Delight in the Lord. These are
in order on purpose. Commit your way unto the Lord. Rest in the Lord. Cease from
anger. Wait. Cease from anger. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. First one, fret not. Let's look at Psalm 37, verse
one. Psalm 37, verse one, fret not
thyself because of evildoers. Remember the subject? This is
about, we got to walk in this world. We're surrounded by evildoers. I know a couple of y'all have
jobs. You have a given occupation and you wake up tomorrow morning,
you gotta go work. You gotta go, you gotta go out
in this world. Fret not. You'll be surrounded
by evildoers. Don't worry about it. Somebody's
going to have a need to go to the grocery store. I gotta go
to the grocery store. Be down there. Don't worry about
it. I'm preaching to me. fret not fret not be not displeased
that's what the word means fret not be not displeased don't grieve
don't be angry or jealous because evildoers don't be jealous of
them who evildoers who's that those against the lord those
that don't have a god i told phil that one time he said if
i if you if i was you or if you were me would you move to hawaii
i said well yeah if i didn't have a god i'd move to hawaii
tomorrow that's harsh that's true it's harsh So I didn't mean
that. I mean, I mean it. Let's just
act like I said that nicer. So I thought he laughed it off.
It wasn't funny. Those that are out there for
themselves, those that prosper, the children of God just seem
to suffer. The children of God seem to be afflicted. They seem
to be tormented. Why? Why don't we fret over those
evildoers? Because their end's coming. Their
end's coming. Asaph said this, for I was envious
at the foolish. When I saw the prosperity of
the wicked, I was envious of them. I wish they didn't have
what they had, because I couldn't have it. That's what envy means.
It was so hard for him until Psalm 73, 17, until I went to
the sanctuary of God, to the house of God. And then I understood
their end. Oh, I know what's coming to them.
Lord's going to teach us something in this. And we need to obey
it. God gave us this word. That's what David's saying here
in verse two, he said, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass
and wither as the green herb. They're going to burn up. They're
just flesh. Look at the end of verse one again, fret not thyself
because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers
of iniquity. Neither be thou envious. Don't
wish they didn't have what they do have. They ought not have
a Porsche. Just cause I can fit in one and
I can't have one, they ought not have. They got plenty of
leg room in them. They ought not have that. That
ain't fair. No, don't wish that on them. Don't wish that on them. Why? That's all they'll ever
have. And this ain't just about being
content and not having a car you want to drive. Do you understand
that? They may have physical things
and ease, but soon they shall be cut off. Don't wish that away
from them. Not just from the things of this
life, but from the eternal life to come. They're not just going
to be cut off from men, but cut off from God. Don't be envious
of them. Don't be jealous of them. Don't
wish things away from them. Because if it wasn't for the
grace of God, I'd be just like them. There'd be no difference
to me and them. None. But for the grace of God,
there go I, he said to the drunk. I can relate to that. Paul, this is all those things.
Oh, all those main things are bad things, lascivious things,
and homosexualities. Oh, no. And he said, and such
were some of you. We're Jacob saying, we'll take
his hand off me. I ain't nothing. No one. This
is all that the enemies of God will ever have that ought to
help us not be angry with them. That's all they ever going to
have. And they're fighting God right now. Well, they're about
to meet the man. About to go into eternity wrestling. The
Lord ain't wrestled with them yet. Yet. Where were you when God
met you? You doing all right? Was you
firing on all cylinders? Knowing this is the very best
they'll ever have. It ought to keep us from being jealous and
envious of those that don't know God. I should never complain
about my lot in life. Whatever the Lord has put in
front of me, I've been predestinated by God's grace to be made just
like Christ for eternity. That's the words of God, but
I have that inheritance. They don't have that. They don't have
that. No matter how difficult the trial or how treacherous
the path, don't fret. Don't fret, don't get spun up
on the inside about that. No matter those that curse you and
no matter those that curse the Lord, well, I gotta defend the
gospel. You don't think God can? I don't think he's able to. Don't
fret, don't fret. The Lord will not forget his
enemies. We act like he will, he won't. Paul said, if it be
possible as much as life in you, live peaceably with all, A-double-L,
all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,
but rather give place to wrath. Don't offend yourself, for it's
written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. He'll
handle it. Therefore, if thy enemy hunger,
The one that just hates you the most. If they're hungry, feed
them. Feed them. If he thirsts, give him drink.
I know a lady one time, somebody came to the door and she said,
you want a glass of water? And I said, no. And she slammed the door. She checked
the block, right? That ain't talking about giving
them a ham sandwich and a cup of water. Give them the gospel. And that ain't your job to preach.
That's mine. You say, come here, man. Come
here, my pastor. I told you a lot. My dad said it. And people would
get asked to come. Come church with me. Come church. I thought
he was a fool. It took the power of God for him to look somebody
in the eye in a community and say, come church with me. God
was working in that man. God used him. That was his ministry. People want to get so hoity-toity,
they got to name something. God used him for that. Therefore,
if thy enemy hunger, feed him. If they thirst, give him drink.
Fret not, don't worry. Lord ain't gonna, he ain't gonna
miss an enemy. One ain't gonna slip through.
It'll be all right. Second word, fret not, trust in Lord. Verse three, trust in the Lord. We have no confidence in the
flesh. Isn't that what circumcision has? No confidence in the flesh,
but all of our confidence, all of our trust is in the Lord.
If the Lord lets us do that, that's gonna cure fretting. If
we're trusting him, we don't fret. If we fret, we ain't trusting
him. It goes hand in hand, don't it?
I ought to trust him. John wrote this in 1 John 5.
He said, if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is
greater. And we receive the witness of
men. We do. I do. I do it often. There is people in this world
I trust. There's a man I love, and I trust him, and he told
me what airline to fly on. I fly on that airline. I trust
him. You go to the doctor, and they
say, well, you got heartburn. Here, take a Rolaid. Eat it. And then you put it in your mouth,
you chew it up, and you say, that worked. You trust people, don't you? Drive
up down 94, you wear a seat belt. I see all them liquor bottles
up down the side of the road. I get on that road and drive every
day, don't I? If we trust man, the witness of God is greater.
He ain't lyin'. I wish I could trust him and
quit actin' like he was. He ain't lyin' to me. Trust him. Kim and I went to Australia.
And there was a whole lot of reasons. We could have sat down
and did a program call. Benjamin Franklin this out. There
was a whole lot of reasons. We had to worry, to fret, to
be fearful. Sydney is a big city, cleanest
big city I've ever been in in my life. But it's still a big
city. You'd go down the wrong alley,
you'd be in some trouble, wouldn't you? There's a lot of dangers
that I didn't know. I didn't know what street was
what. And it's things I wouldn't even consider to say or do or
address or whatever. I could have been in a whole
lot of trouble. And then from Sydney, we went down to Nara.
And there's a lot of roads, and there's a whole lot of people
and places and things and everything I'd heard of, because we get
the rumor mill going. Everybody thinks we're swimming right now
in San Diego County. They call me from all over the
country. Because we're fretting, right? It's one thing to check
on your brother and another thing to stop fretting. So fret not.
But there's a whole lot of huge snakes, and there's a whole lot
of huge lizards, and spiders, and crocodiles, and things that
just ain't gonna kill you down here on that continent, isn't
it? You know, I wasn't worried. Was you worried? I wasn't worried.
Why? I wasn't anxious. Why? I had Lisa and Angus with
me. I had them. They care for me.
They ain't gonna take me down out of the way I don't need to
be down. Do you know that? You know, the whole time we were
there, we didn't make the first decision. You get that? Do you understand? I'm talking
about trusting Angus and Lisa Fisher. Do you understand? This
is how we do it with the Lord. You get that? I didn't make a
decision. I didn't tell them where to turn.
I didn't tell them where to get gas. I didn't tell them where
to stop and eat. I didn't tell them which way to park or which
way to walk or where to walk or nothing. I just simply trusted
them because they were for my good. They were for me. I trusted
them. I wouldn't worry. Ben took us
four wheeling. I didn't worry about the path.
That's his business. It's on you, buddy. I ain't got to worry
about that. Trust in the Lord and do good.
The Lord tells us, tells his people, those he's come, grabbed
hold of their fire, trust in him and do good. Faith and obedience
go hand in hand. Trust in the Lord, believe in
Christ, love your brethren. Do righteousness. Do it. He says
so. Faith and obedience go hand in
hand. You can have obedience. and not have faith. But you cannot
have faith and not have obedience. If you believe, you act. That's
all there is to it. If there's love in you, love
does something. And you stop tongue whipping everybody, and
you start loving them, and you start saying kind things, and
you start talking about what the Lord's done for you, not what you've
done for the Lord. That's so. Faith and obedience go hand in
hand. I tell children, it's gonna rain, Go rain tomorrow when you
go to school. What do you do? Well, get your
rain jacket and an umbrella. Why? They trust me. There's obedience
with that, isn't there? I hear people complain and complain
and complain and murmur and vent and fret and wrestle with God's
providence over and over and over. And at the end of it, well,
God's in control. Man, that's wearisome. That's fretting. Do
righteousness. Believe Christ. Love your brother.
This is impossible, right? Impossible verbs. talking to
me. I want to, I desire to do this.
Do you think the most loving thing is to sow doubt and fear
in brethren? I'm trying to make eye contact with every human
being in here. So I ain't talking to nobody. I'm talking to everybody and
I'm talking to me. Do you think sowing doubt, discord, unbelief
in brethren is a good thing? It's contagious. Fretting is
contagious. Unbelief's contagious. Hell's
spread like wildfire. Getting scared of the government's
contagious. Fret not. Trust the Lord. Do good. He said
so. He said so. Maybe it's best if
I sow trust in the Lord. Maybe it's best if I sow the
seeds of love and what God's done for us and his son that
laid down his life for us. And where he is now? We got worse
to die by. We gotta get through this evening.
Lord's on the throne. He left. Peter said, cast all
your care on him for he cares for you. Cast all your care. Trust the Lord and do good. Verse
three. So shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt
be fed. Do it. Do good. You'll be fed.
You'll be fed. He's worthy to be trusted. Trust
his wisdom. Trust his perfect providence.
Trust his chastening. I need to learn that. Trust his
chastening, trust his love, trust him and you'll be fed. You shall
be fed. Start saying he's on his throne
and end with saying he's on his throne and everything else in
the middle. He's on his throne and you'll be fed. You'll be
fed. I trust him. I don't, I don't
want y'all to feel sorry for me when the Lord puts a trial
on me. I trust him. I weep. Now buddy, it hurts. I trust
it. Joe ran his mantle and shaved
his head and hit his face. And he said, bless be God. He
gave him, bless be the name of the Lord. Didn't he? He believed.
He still hurt. I know some brethren right now
that's just going through something. I got a text message along with
my arm the other day and I went, oh, I cried. I wept when I read
it. But they believe God. They trust
him. Pain will come with it. But all
that we can trust him and be fed. David wrote this from experience.
Down in verse 25. He said, I've been young and
now I'm old. I'm old. Remember old brother Barnard? I'm old brother Thacker. We're
same age. Same age, you know that? Forgetting
me. I've been young, now I'm old. I got a couple years on
me. I've been around this for a minute. And yet I've not seen
the righteous forsaken. I've never seen them let go.
Seen them chasing. I ain't never seen one as righteous.
God made righteous forsaken. God put his wrath on them and
condemnation ain't happened. I ain't seen it. And I've never
seen his seed begging bread. Me neither. Me neither. Well, does that mean that we
run out of beans and rice? That too. Uh, Lord gathers his people together
in a local assembly and you lose your job and you can't afford
to eat. You'll be fed for him. Can't
start eating cat food. Your brethren will step in and
we're going to make sure you're fed. That's no problem. That
ain't nothing. That's not what he's talking
about though. That's so it's not what he's talking about. If you hunger
for Christ, if there's somebody with a need, a thirst for the
gospel, they ain't going to do without. They ain't gonna have
that artificial stuff. They'll be where the gospel is.
God will put them there. And people say, well, I can't
cost my job. Who gave you that job? Well, I can't move. This is where my family is. Lord's
family showed up. His mom did. His siblings said,
hey, we want to see Jesus. And he said, this is my mother.
This is my siblings, my family right here. He'll give you a
family you won't do without. They won't be begging bread.
Won't happen. Fret not. Stop it. My dad always says that. Pay no attention to it. I said,
that drives me nuts, dad. He said, pay no attention to
it. I said, easy for you. Don't bother you. Fret not. I want to. I don't want to fret.
Fret not. Trust in the Lord. Here's the
third one. Verse four. Delight thyself also in the Lord.
Delight. Delight in the Lord. Delight
thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee desires of
thine heart. What your heart wants, you're
gonna get it. Lord, your will be done. I promise you it's gonna
come to pass. Father, glorify your name. That's
gonna happen. Hands are down. Do you want that?
Or do you want to be glorified? Delight thyself also in the Lord.
These words all go in order, you know that? Fret not, trust
and do good, delight in the Lord. Delight in the Lord. Not just
begrudgingly trust him. but delight in them. I saw some
people believe in a sovereign God and they were miserable.
I mean, miserable people. That doesn't mean it saved all
the Pharisees believed in election. They didn't believe in the God
of election. They believed in the doctrine of election. Doctrine
don't save, a person does. There's people that believe in
a sovereign God and they're miserable. But delight thyself also in the
Lord. It's hard. It ain't easy. This
might be the most difficult assignment. But the way to true happiness
Way of peace and faith is delight yourself in the Lord. We're not
just simply told, just eat crow and deal with it. That's what
the Lord gave you. Well, that's my lot in life.
I just got to accept it. I don't want to do that. And
I'll keep my chin up. I'm going to do the best I can.
I'll just try to pledge. That's not what the text says. That's
not what he says. God's speaking. I ain't telling
you this. God is. But to delight yourself, delight
yourself. The unbeliever delights in their
way, don't they? Does the unbeliever delight in
their way? The unbeliever delights in their way. They love all their
things. They delight in their strengths
and their wisdom and their riches, their family, their successes,
all that stuff. But it's the way of destruction.
They delight in it, but it's the way of destruction. That's
all temporary. It's going to burn. My blessing,
my inheritance is eternal. The unbeliever has no cause to
delight. I do. If he's worked in you, you do.
You have a reason to be happy. Content to delight delights different
happy. I guess happenstance every now
and then but we can delight I'm worried about this. He's on the
throne. It'd be alright Don't fret trust
the Lord and then get happy about it Turn over for second Corinthians
second Corinthians, that's hard to do that's hard. I know it
is but 2 Corinthians 12. You know where I'm turning, but
I want you to highlight this, underline it, draw a star next
to it, whatever you got to do. This is important. I want us
to turn in our Bibles and look at this. 2 Corinthians 12, verse
8. I always pay attention to grammar
because I struggle so hard with it. This is a blessing to me,
I think it'll be to you. Paul was talking about that thorn
in his flesh, 2 Corinthians 12 verse 8. For this thing I besought
the Lord thrice, three times, that it might depart from me.
And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. How often
have I stopped there? I gave it to you, hush, deal
with it. You'll be all right. Zip it. How often I stop, that
ain't a period there. That's not a period. If your
Bible has a period, it's wrong. That ain't a period there. That's
a colon. Lord's gonna list something. He's gonna give us something.
Don't stop there. It's not a period. He's gonna tell us why. My grace
is sufficient for thee, colon, for because my strength is made
perfect in weakness. When we delight in his strength. Do you get that? It's not just
eating it. When we delight in his strength, Paul continues,
most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory, I'll rejoice
in my infirmities, that the power, the strength, the might of Christ
may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions
and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I'm weak, then I'm strong. A trial comes and hits hard and
hits heavy. And I know, because I've been
through this a couple of times, the Lord's going to teach me
something. I'm going to see Christ there. Now, like, if I be so, why am
I thus? If there's life in me, why is
this war going on? He said, well, there's two nations in you. He
explained it to her. He took that child by the hand
and explained something to her. It gave her knowledge and understanding.
She said, thank you, Lord. And she is still pregnant. It's
still kicking on her bladder and everything else. Still happens. There's still pain, but we rejoice
in the Lord. God sent you that trial. And
then the rubber hits the road, buddy. There's some of God's
people that I mean, deep trial right now. And I had to tell
them, God sent us to you. You know that. Then they know
it. Now rejoice in it. He's doing this for your good.
You know it, you can't see now. You can't see to eternity future.
You can't see in those councils of God eons ago. We can't see
it. It's so, we know it's so. Now
rejoice in it. The Lord did this, let's be happy
about it. He sent this, let's rejoice in it. Paul said in Romans
five, he said, not only so, but we, glory, we rejoice in tribulations
also, knowing that those tribulations that we used to fret over. Trust
the Lord, rejoice in Him. Those tribulations, they work
patience. How patient are we? And patience works experience.
You can go through this a few times. And you know what? I think
I finally, I told you the other night, how many times do I tell
the children, shut the door? Do you know what I do now? I shut
the door. I've had some experience and I'm hopeful. I have an expected
end. Does that mean I'm gonna quit
learning? Nope. That wrestle match is going to happen until
I die. We'll die in the faith, won't we? He said, works patience,
patience, experience, experience, hope, and hope maketh not ashamed,
because the whole thing, well, it's well, love God, shed abroad
in your hearts. That's coming from all this pain and experience
and trials and tribulations that we're supposed to be rejoicing
in, right? Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. God's gave us life. We have those words to die by,
Live by them. Live by them. My pastor said
this when I was young. I remember it. I don't act on
it as much as I wished I did. He said, with that in mind, with
that in mind, pay attention to me, be done with self-pity. Rather, pity the wicked. With
that in mind, be done with self-pity, rather, pity the wicked and us
rejoice in the Lord. I looked that up in Philippians,
it's 10 times, it says rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord. God saved
us. I ought to walk through this
world like somebody that God saved. I have an expected end. I don't
need to be Debbie Downer and pouty face all the time. I have
hope. I have hope for us to live as
Christ. He dwells in me. If we live by these words, the
Lord must work them in us. If us to live is Christ, for
me to fret not, for me to trust him, for me to rejoice, he's
got to do it. Now, what's going to get him to do it? Ask him.
Ask him. He made it rain, as he creates
a snowpack. Lord, make me stop fretting.
Lord, make me trust you. Lord, make me be happy. Make
me rejoice, make me glory in you. In you, what's that? All
of him. His providence, His wisdom, His
will, everything. Make me rejoice. Back in our
text here. Here's the other thing. I could stop there and it'd do
you good. He don't stop there. The Lord
didn't stop there, did He? There's more verses in this chapter,
right? Psalm 37, verse five. Pray it not, trust the Lord,
do good, rejoice in the Lord, and commit thy way unto the Lord.
Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall
bring it to pass. He's gonna bring it to pass,
but you commit to him. You commit to him. There's a
committal. We looked at it at the first
hour, right? What did Jacob do? His hip was out of socket. Did he
quit? No, he latched on. And all that pain, and all that
misery, I couldn't imagine what that'd feel like. And he just,
if I could get my hands on ya, I ain't gonna let go. It was
commitment. Commitment. Commit thy way unto
the Lord. Paul used this word commit in
his definition of faith. That's what our old brother Spurgeon
said. Spurgeon said this is the best definition of faith. Would
you listen to it? He said, I know whom I have believed. This is
the definition of faith, 2 Timothy 1.12. I know whom I have believed.
I don't know what I believed. I don't have faith in when I
believed or where I believed. I know whom, a person, I know
whom I have believed. Salvation is not experience,
it's not just a profession, it's a person. I know whom I believed,
that's whom, and I'm persuaded, I'm confident. I trust in him. Do you get that? I trust in the
Lord. I know him. I trust him. I know
whom I believe. I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've, what's the word? Committed. Committed. Cast all your life on him. Not, not just a few things. Cast
all your care on him. Unto him. I've committed unto
him against that day. I've turned myself over. He says,
commit your way to the Lord. It doesn't say just commit your
soul to the end. Well, that's the truth. And whenever I die,
Lord, give me dying grace and we'll see you in glory. Go do
whatever I want to do for the next 50 years. No, it doesn't
say that. It doesn't say don't just commit
your salvation. Salvation is of the Lord, and that's so. That's
so. It says your way. Commit your
way. It doesn't say your faith. He's
the author and the finisher of our faith. If we have faith,
it's the faith of Christ, and that's so. He says, commit your
way. Commit your way. That way, the
word, your way, it means road, course of life, and this is precious,
mode of action. I went running this week. You
know why? Because you need a pastor. Them little children are going
to grow up, and they need somebody to preach the gospel to them. Well, if I have a responsibility
to go try to eat the best I can, the Lord's got to keep my heart
pumping. He has to keep me alive, and no matter what I do, He can
make me live through it. Or no matter what I do, he can kill
me from it. But because I know him, I've committed my way to
him, well, that changes what I eat. Touch, not taste, not how I live
my life, how I drive. And like the other day, I about
got out of a car, whooped, fell in a parking lot. And I said, oh, why did
I do that? Then I had another guy stop and
pointed at me, and I thought he might recognize me from YouTube
or something. He might be one of them two viewers that watches,
other than Clay on Wednesday. And I said, yes, sir. And he
said, I'm on my phone. I said, why are you pointing?
Thank you for that information. I left that one alone. Crazy, buddy. I want to commit
my way to the Lord. That means you take the mode
of action, the course of life. That means you take your whole
burden of life, all your possessions. Boy, that's tough. Maybe we've
got a skosh of covetousness in us. If you have an old man, it
ain't nothing but covetousness. You hear that? Commit all your
possessions, all your family. If they want your coat, give
your cloak too. Your family, your care, all your will, all
your way, cast it on him and leave it there. Leave it there. We sing it, don't we? Take your
burden to the Lord. You got to trust him to take
your burden to the Lord, don't you? Well, the commitment comes with
leaving it there. That's another impossible verb,
but I want to do it. Do you? I want to. I want to take my burden. I want
to trust him to take my burden to him, and I want to have the
commitment of my way to him to leave it there. That's your business,
Florida. I ain't worried about it. Somebody broke into a van,
stole Kimberly's purse there in New Jersey. And if I could have seen
him do it and got my hands on him, I wouldn't let go of them
neither. I can't stand a thief. But I felt sorry for them. That's
all they ever have. And you just stole the purse
of one of God's daughters. You got a lot more trouble coming
than what I can give you. Take that burden and leave it
there. We talk a lot about the Lord's sovereignty and we ought
to. We talk a lot about his sovereign grace and we ought to. We talk
about being washed in the blood and we ought to. But God tells
us to commit our way unto him. Not just our end state, not just
our inheritance, not just our eternity, our way, the whole
of me, right now. Right now. You can't separate
faith and conduct. You can't trust and not do good.
You can't do it. Solomon said, for as a man thinketh
in his heart, so is he. What's inside you is going to
come out. It's going to. When Christ works in his child
to stop fretting, to trust him, to rejoice in him, to commit
our way, to him, the whole thing. Then we have true rest. Boy,
I mean, that's rest. That's rest. Look here in verse
seven. Here's the fifth word, rest in the Lord. Psalm 37, seven,
rest in the Lord. I desire to do that verb. I desire to rest. I want to rest
in his wisdom because I don't have it. I don't have any. I want to rest in his wheel.
My times are in his hands. All my times, every second. That's,
that's our, that's our theology. And I want it to be my experience.
I want to rest in his wheel. I can bow to it. Not just talk
about bowing to it, bow to it. I want to rest in his love. He's
loved me with an everlasting love. That's the love I want
to rest in. And you know what? When I doubt his care, when I
doubt his will, when I doubt his wisdom, you know what I'm
doubting? I'm doubting his love. I want to rest in him. I want
to rest in his commitment, not mine, but I want to cling to
him like Jacob did. I want to cease from fretting.
I want to cease from labor and rest. I want to do that. That's
what the word means, but it also means something else. Something
else I desire to do. Another meaning of this word
rest is to be silent before the Lord. I want to rest my lips. Shut up. I need to go look in
the mirror and say, shut up. Just stop. Hush. You start yapping. What am I
not an expert in? What are you not an expert in? I'm not an expert in anything.
I need to shut up. I need to shut my mouth. Remember
when Nadab and Abihu, they brought that strange fire? And man, these
religious folks, they sat around there washing machines in their
living room tables and everything. Let's get the Bible out and talk
gospel. It's not profitable. Stop it. Everybody says, what's
the strange fire? Self-promotion. Look at me. Don't matter what that fire was.
Look at them fellas. They got something different.
Look at them. And there was glory in them. The Lord wasn't going
to have it. And they went out far from the
Lord and devoured them. And they died before the Lord.
God killed them. And then Moses said unto Aaron,
that it is the Lord that spake, saying, I will be sanctified
and come not of me. I will be holy in their eyes.
And before all thy people, I'll be glorified. And Aaron held
his peace. There was rest. He didn't say
nothing about it. It's the Lord. That's what Eli
said, wasn't it? It's the Lord letting do as he
sees fit. Hold your tongue. Well, I think heresy. That's what the word
means, opinion. I think, well, I think we ought
to be doing this. The word's heresy, opinion. Aaron held his
peace. He didn't say anything. That
shows some understanding and that shows some reverence towards
God. holding your tongue. There's an old English saying,
it says a silent tongue shows a wise head. And somebody added
to that, a believer added to that, said a silent tongue shows
a wise head and sometimes it shows a holy heart. I want to
rest my tongue. I want to keep my mouth shut.
There's another tough one. Verse eight, cease from anger. Cease from anger and forsake
wrath. It's best to cease from being
angry with the Lord. It's best to cease from being
angry with His will and His providence. That's best. Cease from being
angry with Him. It's best to cease anger from
the unbeliever. We were just like them until
the Lord came to us and wrestled with us, didn't He? We know this,
but it's hard. Don't be angry with them. The
Lord has to enable us to do this. It's best to cease from anger
with those in our own home. Don't let the sun go down on
your anger, on your wrath. It's best to cease from anger
with ourselves. That's where the most fretting
and all that being riled up starts, isn't it? We just stir with anger
inside of ourselves. You know what I should have said?
I should have said more words than I've ever said out loud
in my head. I should have said this and I should have said that.
Cease from anger. Cease from anger. And it's best
to cease from anger against your brother and your sister. They're
still in this body of sin too. They're just a sinner saved by
grace. Cease from anger that would lead to vengeance. Cease
from that. Look at verse 8. Cease from anger
and forsake wrath. Threaten not thyself in any wise
to do evil. On that, my pastor said this,
and I wrote it down as verbatim as I could. Maybe you listen. Pay attention to him if you won't
hear me. He said, don't let another person's neglect, don't let another
person's neglect, ingratitude, carelessness, waywardness, or
treatment cause you to sin. Don't let that make you have
a bad attitude. You'll suffer in that. You'll do the suffering. In other words, if I let someone's
behavior influence my thought, then I'm going to suffer. I need
to, I need to hear this. I've fallen into that awful trap
of returning what they gave and that's not God's way. And it hurts me. It doesn't hurt
them because they're going to be like that anyway. But I'm
the one that's hurt. And if I build up in a way of
thinking that is detrimental to my walk with God. I told a
friend who was arguing with somebody the other day, I said, a young,
a young man, very young man, very wise man told me this years
ago. He said, if you argue with a fool, they'll bring you down
to their level and beat you with experience. So. Just talking in circles. Here's the last thing. Cease
from anger. Last one. Verse eight. Cease from anger
and forsake wrath. Threaten not thyself and any
wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off.
The Lord's gonna deal with them. But those that wait upon the
Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Wait. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Time's nothing to the Lord. Time's important to us. Time,
well, time's nothing to the Lord. Peter said a thousand years is
like a day, and a day is like a thousand years. That's not
an algorithm. That's not a mathematical formula.
He said it don't matter to him. Time doesn't affect the Lord.
He's infinite. We value time so much on this earth because
we have so little of it. Time's money. My time's important. We have so little of it. Or brother
Spurgeon said, times, nothing to God. Therefore, let it be
nothing to you. Times, nothing got, don't let
it be nothing to you. The Lord's worth waiting for.
He's worth waiting for whatever he has in store for his children. It's worth waiting for. Wait
on him. Wait on him. He's never too early. And he's
never late. His will always comes to pass
in what? The fullness of time. When it's
just right, isn't it? That's his business to keep me.
He's got to watch. You understand that? He owns
the clock. That's his business. It's his business to keep me.
It's his business to provide for me. It's his business to
protect me. And it's his business to govern all things. We who
believe, it's our business to wait. He tells us to wait on the Lord.
It's our business to wait on him. We know the end. We know
that ought to make it, ain't that right, D'Anne? That ought
to make it easy for us to wait to the end, ain't it? I love
World War II documentaries. I love them. I love the equipment,
the uniforms, the whole thing, the story, the battles, Bastogne
and Battle of the Bulge, Hurtigan Forests. I know a lot of stuff
about these things. I love it. I love it. And you
know, when I watch those documentaries, I never break a sweat. I don't
fret. Oh man, you think England's gonna
do okay? I never wring my hands and fret.
Why? I know the end. They didn't then. They scared death, wouldn't they? Germany may come, may not. One
little tiny country took on the whole world. Just about one,
twice. They didn't know the end, did
they? We know the end. I can watch it. I'm not tore up. I
just sit there, cool as a cucumber. Don't bother me, none. I know
the outcome. Readers, you people that read books, you like books.
Do you read a book and you get halfway through and that hero,
the main character just falls into distress? Oh man, and you
can't see an end, an out form, and it's just looking so bad.
Looks like they ain't gonna make it. Do you just close the book
up and throw it away? Well, no, you keep reading. You gotta see
the end, don't you? I've read the end. fret not,
trust in the Lord. Be happy about it. Get happy
about it. Rejoice in Him. Cease from anger. Don't do those
things. Commit yourself. You wait. Commit
to God. Wait on Him. Because I've read
the end. I know how this ends. He's going
to wipe away all tears. You trust Him? He said so. God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be
no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying. Neither shall
there be any more pain for the former things are passed away.
It's gone. That's what's coming. He that sat upon the throne said,
behold, I'll make all things new. What's that going to look like?
I don't know if it's going to be good. He made it brand new. I'll make
all new. And he said unto me, right for
these words are true and faithful. It's good. It's true. It's faithful. Why? Because of who said it.
Do we know him? Let's trust him. Let's commit
our way to him. Let's stop being angry and quit
fretting and wringing our hands and rejoice. Let's delight in
the Lord. I know what I'm saying. All seven
things, impossible. seven impossible desires. I can't
do it. I want to. I can't do it. If God's pleased, he'll make
me. Christ in you. That's that lie. He'll do it.
He has some. I want him to do it more. Don't
you?